ChkFlsh method (revised)
 

Creds for original post go to skinski Here

NUMBER ONE MOST IMPORTANT CHECK YOUR DEVICE WITH H2TESTW.EXE BEFORE PROCEEDING.

download here and run the test. The only number your concerned with is how much is "OK"

sample:
The media is likely to be defective.
1.8 GByte OK <|-- this is the "Real" memory and this is the number you will be using in this tutorial.
58.6 GByte DATA LOST (122921617 sectors)
Details:710.5 KByte overwritten (1421 sectors)
7.6 MByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 15630 sectors)
58.6 byte corrupted (122904566 sectors)
710.5 KByte aliased memory (1421 sectors)
First error at offset: 0×000000003cef8470
Expected: 0xeb7ac43a237c5170
Found: 0xeb7a843a237c5170
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 9.24 MByte/s
Reading speed: 10.8 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4


This is a method of unhacking memory that has been very successful for me. I don't know who came up with it but i first read it by skinski.
With recent models of hacked players some of the old methods are no longer good. Such as MP3 utilities method. however i believe this method will always work.

Step one:
Download ChkFlsh here and extract it.

Step two: Open ChkFlsh you should see this:

http://i45.tinypic.com/35kuyz7.jpg

Step Three: Choose the letter of your drive in the dive box, Then choose "As physical device".

http://i49.tinypic.com/w05fzk.jpg

Step Four: Now scoll down in the actions box and click on Low level initialization.

http://i46.tinypic.com/23sd8ah.jpg

Step Five: Now here's where it gets debatable. I'm going to show you the method i use. I do not know if it is the correct, or if its the only way. But it always works for me. Click Start! You will see this:

http://i49.tinypic.com/2d854qu.jpg

Step Six: If there is any partitions on the list delete them. Now, Create a partition in slot 0 and make it around 1800 MB and FAT32. (this is if the hacked player is a 2GB the idea is to get as close to the real memory, without going over, as possible.

http://i47.tinypic.com/10ykr50.jpg

Step Seven: Now click OK. Then in slot 1(not slot 0) make a new partition that's FAT16 and as low memory as you can make it without hitting 0.

http://i49.tinypic.com/1zdxcee.jpg

Step Eight: Almost done! Now click on slot 0 again and click activate on the menu.

http://i45.tinypic.com/142aqll.jpg

Step Nine: Now that you have activated partition 0 click OK and you will get this message:

http://i45.tinypic.com/205y2ol.jpg

Step Ten: Click yes and wait for a few seconds until you get this message:

http://i49.tinypic.com/2m6v4hy.jpg

Step Eleven: Now DO NOT CLOSE THAT BOX YET first unplug the device from the usb and plug it back it. When you hear the sound of windows recognizing the device, then close the box. Your done with ChkFlsh. Just one more step.

Step Twelve: Now open my computer and find your device. Right click on it and click format. Then switch the type to FAT32 if it isnt already. It should look like this:

http://i48.tinypic.com/33e29on.jpg

Click Start, wait for the OK message, AND your DONE! yay.

tutorial made with print scrn and paint by me

P.S. I just want to clear a few things up, 1. I am not an expert and my knowledge is limited to experimentation. 2. I don't think the small fat16 partition is necessary but what it does is put the real memory at the end of the chip so it cant go beyond. and 3. I think this is just for AK2025 type players but I may be wrong.

Hello frozensoda
I have tried your method but there is a problem. After selecting Low Leven Initialization and clicking Start I get the following error appearing in a dialog box.

This device is formatted as "big floppy" drive and not contain partition table. Do you want to generate black partition table for manual filling?
This change is DESTRUCTIVE and will be written to disk only after you complete process of partitioning.
Yes No

That is exactly the message that I get, bad grammar and all. I have twop questions.
1. What is a "big floppy"?
2. What the smeg can I do about it? I mean will this method work or is something about my player incompatible?

Yes, I have encountered this message before. When I got it i pressed yes and it went to the partition table. Have you tried clicking yes? or am i missing something?

Hello frozensoda
Yes I tried that. It does indeed bring up a blank partition table. I then follow all your instructions from there on in. It does nothing, everything appears to happen as you describe but the fake memory size remains after the unplug/replug part. Once again any help you (or anyone else) could provide would be most appreciated.

Sorry if I sound condescending but you didn't close the box before you replugged it did you? also what kind of player is it? can you upload a picture?

ALSO after this process is done chkflash and any other program will still see the full 8GB hacked memory, however what this process accomplishes is to unformat all the space except what you want. So to tell if it really worked format in windows with a right click like the last step if that still has the unhacked number then something went wrong.

one more thing to try is reverse the order in which you make the partitions, in other words put the small partition in slot 0 and the full one in slot 1. Then replug and you should see a drive pop up witha very small amount of memory after this run chkflash again and move partition 1 up to 0 and activate it. Then finish replug and format.

Hello again frozensoda
Something has gone wrong alright. Firstly, no I didn't close the dialog box before replugging the device and making sure the system could see it, but I don't mind you checking these things, I think it's important to be thorough. Secondly, I tried your suggestion of putting the small partition first then running chkflsh again and switching them, it didn't work. After the first time through I ran chkflsh again and got the same "big floppy" error and the partition table was blank again (doesn't matter whether I click yes or no). It's like it never copied the data to the drive in the first place even though it reported no errors. As for my player I don't have a camera handy but here is the codes written on the three chips that are on its board:

Chip 1:
ATJ2137N
ZA600BB 18P

Chip 2:
SEC KOREA 807
KM416S4030AT
UZK593BB

Chip 3:
SAMSUNG 949
K9GAG08U0M-PCB0

Download HP usb tool here and just format in fat32 and try the process again. But don't use the usb tool to do the last step in the process or it wont work use right click format.

note: formatting will destroy your device for now, but wont ruin the firmware, just format in fat32.

Hello again frozensoda
I tried your idea of using the hp format tool first and got some interesting results. Firstly, when I got to the low level initialization part the error message was different. It read:

Current Master Boot Record (MBR) may be corrupt. Do you want to replace it?

I said yes and proceeded as normal from there. I then did the right click format on the drive but the number was still the same, I formatted it anyway. I then went back to chkflsh to see what it thought was there. I got the same "big floppy" error as before but this time I answered no so I could see the partition table as it was without chkflsh erasing it. this is what the partition table showed:
Attachment 450
So now I'm really confused. Should I just start over or what? Oh, and thank you very much for trying to help by finding a similar device and trying to figure it out, do you have a lot of these type of players? Anyway thanks again
meerkat8472

I almost want to say try doing it without rebuilding the MBR but Idk what will happen.

p.s. if you can find a way to get a pic of your mp4, even if you grab it from ebay, that would be great.

Hello frozensoda
I tried it again without rebuilding the MBR, didn't work. Anyway here are two pictures from the ebay listing that I bought it from. I think it adequately shows all major sides of the player.
Attachment 455
Attachment 456
Thanks again for all your help.

meerkat8472, if it possible, can you extract firmware from your device and post it here?
I badly needs that firmware for my dead device... pls!

Hello Stilen
I would if I could. So far my attempts at using s1res, the ATJ2137N tools and mp3 utilities have all failed. I don't even know how to find out what version firmware I have. If anyone can help me with that then that would be great, because it would help me and I could help Stilen.

Hi there :)

@frozensoda: T.H.A.N.K. Y.O.U. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just subsribed to thank you, I have tried the others methods, including the one from skinski, using also MP3 Player Utilities etc... I had "Err. Disque" (I'm french, I guess it's simply "disk error" in the warnings of english players) and I tried to format a thousand times with these utilities and Win7, but even if I finally managed to display the right size and copy files (first I had a size warning telling me something like "14 GB space missing" oO) I couldn't play anything, since I had the error message. I tried your method, and you saved my (damn fake) player :D

Thank you again !!

PS: if someone is wondering what model my player is, I don't know but it's something I bought from "superdealdaily2046" (now known as "cityin168") who sold a LOT of fake players (I thought I was buying 8GB, I actually have only 2GB). It's a nano clone, it looks like this. Be careful when unhacking memory if you have a player like mine... the only method that worked for me was this one!

OK! good to hear it worked, that is the same player i tested this with, as well as a risone 4gb touchscreen, i received the "big floppy" error from a ipod touch clone still working on a fix. any help appreciated.

good method to reset fake USB flash drives
 

I reset my fake USB flash drive (stick) using this method
I tested the 16GB with the well known h2testw program and this told me the stick only had 1.9GB of real memory

I guess this tanslates to 16gigaBITS and not gigabytes

anyway, after reformatting, I ran the h2testw again & it came back without errors for my 1.9GB's
so I now have a reliable stick of 2GB

:cool:

I also have an itouch clone, from ebay:

eBay.be: 16GB 2.8" LCD ECRAN TACTILE LECTEUR MP3/MP4 + CAMERA (object 220564205735 eindtijd 05-mrt-10 21:22:29 CET)

h2testw tells me it's another fake, only 3.5GB ok out of 16GB total

I would love to try this method on that too, but don't wanna ruin the player
it works fine, as long as I don't load over 3.5GB of data onto it..

edit:
chipgenius analysis:
PnP Device ID: VID = 10D6 PID = 1101
Serial Number: 5&&1ECB9C73&&0&&2
Revision: 0100/0100
Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 Full-Speed (USB1.1)
Chip Vendor: Actions(??)
Chip Part-Number: ATJ209X/ACU75XX
Product Vendor:
Product Model: MP3 Player

I also use a (real) 4GB SD card with it, wondering if I screw up the onboard memory, will it still work fine of the memory card?:confused:?

the interface looks exactly like this, but only has one button (with blue backlight)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vwuLjslQGe...00/TSMP4-1.jpg

found some pics of my player:

http://i.ebayimg.com/19/!BnTY69wBWk~...V,99w~~_35.JPG


http://i.ebayimg.com/17/!BnTY+iwBGk~...kiJEQ~~_35.JPG


any advise/tips on removing the hack would be most welcome..

@Still Life
That Player looks almost identical to mine but mine was an 8GB fake (actually 2GB) and of course it came in a different style box. Also I was unable to get h2testw to work with it properly. I have also had no luck removing the hack with this method or any other that I've found. Still hoping that frozensoda or someone else comes up with a solution.

h2testw works fine on mine, it said I only had 3.5GB of real mem,
did you have problems with yours after trying chkflsh?

I think I'll try this out in a few days, but I need the player to keep me company for the next few days,
can't afford bricking it now, maybe afterwards...

guess I'd better start a new thread on this type of player..

is this yours?

http://www.szprice.com/products/Enig...tion_2237.html
http://www.szprice.com/product_images/q/a__21495.jpg
guess this is a more recent version of mine, interface isn't exactly the same..

I still need to try the (sticky) mp3 utilities dehack on mine,
it seems you need an actions ATJ series chip for that method to work (mine has one)

as said, I'll be offline for a few days,
but there's a few things to try when I'm back..

This method worked perfectly for me. I thought my MP4 player was irreversibly dead, but now it is working again. I was not able to follow the instruction exactly as described ( after creating the first partition 0 I had to press start again and restart the process to create partition 1), but it worked fine. My "16GB" MP4 player from urquiquiexpress (Ebay) is now a working 2 GB player! Thanks, frozensoda!

Help, guys!
I accidentally set the size of the partition lower than the actual capacity of the flash chip (I know that because I have opened the case to check the series of the chip and h2testw says the lowered capacity is working fine). Now how do I set the size to it true capacity (or even larger, so I can use CheckFlsh again)? format in Win, HP format tool, mp3 player disk manager or even CheckFlsh cannot revert what CheckFlsh has done.

Thanks,

always determine your real memory size with h2testw before anything else..

have you tried deleting the partition you created with chkflsh?

I deleted the partition with Paragon Partition Manager. But it's still the same size.
I think the size is written in the controller chip, so if there's a program that let us change that info in the controller chip...

The program that will allow you to change the info on the controller chip is the same program that they use to hack it in the first place. I know nothing of how this is done or what they use to do it.

check this out:
http://mympx.org/forum/support-how/4...how-i-did.html

I just fixed my player with this:!!
first ran mydisktest, then isolated all bad blocks, then ran chkflsh to make the remaining memory active

It's still the same:( (lower than the chip's true capacity).
The author of ChkFlsh said "Low level init" is just a partition manager. So it's probably changing only the partition table. Is there any program that let us manually set the size of the partition (bypass what the chip controller says)?

what was the reported size by h2testw? this is always the correct capacity, or what you have left to work with
regardless of what your controller says or whatever is printed on the chip..

I think you have a bad chip, that was meant to be a certain size, but got discarded in the manufacturing proces
some hackers buy these rejects and put them in their units

on a side note, with chipgenius you can read your VID & PID codes: the PID code is your flash chip controller information
About VID PID Repairing Counterfeit Flash Drives – Steps To Succeed FakeFlashNews

I guess you're right.
Before fixing it, h2testw reported 3.5GB is OK.
The NAND chip is MT29F32G08CBAAAWC, which should have 3.7GB.
So I guess I just accidentally set the size to the correct usable memory (I set 3475MB).
At least that's comforting that I'm not "wasting" much memory.

Thanks,

Hallelujah! A BIG Thank you to the OP!

I got this to work on my (hacked) ipod lookalike bought on ebay recently:-

One or two amendments that may help

1) Yes check with the tool what actual readable area is (was 1.8Gb actual on this particular device for a claimed 16Gb)

2) Run the MP3 Disc Manager software first and get it back to a single drive (even if its still saying 16Gb or whatever)

3) Do the chkflsh as above, but I found that trying to create a small FAT16 partition was impossible, chkflsh reporting it to be hundreds of Gb although I set it to 7Mb (hold mouse over slider and use cursor keys for fine adj) so I left it at a single FAT32 partition of about 1.8Gb and it works!

4) Final note, I found some of these devices have an on/off switch which needed cycled (one did the other didn't) for the device to start up again after this mod.

I tested one after format and appears OK System Memory shows as 1886Mb after loading a few songs to test.

Will try and load up 1886Mb and see what happens now, or could re run the read/write tests to see what happens.

Thanks again to the OP

ian :):):)

I believe the above highlighted text may be the solution the the problem the first poster in this thread had. If you ever read this, try doing what he mentioned.

Like I have said elsewhere, this is a workaround not a true fix. The size reported to DOS (and Windows) is still the fake total capacity as passed back by the USB MSD controller when given the SCSI command to find this. BUT, making the active FAT32 partition then allows DOS/Windows to make the correct read/write commands that will only ever use the (active) partitions set parameters.

Its like the old workaround for drives with larger capacity than the BIOS would support, in effect you "waste" the extra (fake in this case) capacity.

ps I have yet to try the normal DOS FDISK command on these drives, it may work just as well as the utility we have been using.

Just looking at what you end up with on the player with the Rockchip controller (thats the touch screen one)

This is it as is with 16GB partition as supplied (fake):-

Obtained from Windows System Information

It may or may not be significant that the line

"Partition Disk #2, Partition #0" is not what you usually get for a drive, its usually of the form "Partition Disk #0, Partition #0"

The second USB device is of course the SD card slot on that player.

:cool:

How to take back ChkFlsh changes
 

Hello!

I made a big mistake!
I want to fix a 16gb mp3 player to 1,7 gb becase the memorychip is a fake. In the same time a 4gb Player was detectet on my USB-Ports so that i put the changes to the wrong system. Now i can't find a way to delet this.

The following steps i made

1. Start chkflsh
2. set to a physical drive (here the system swiched to the fist atached [wrong] usb device. this I havn't seen)
3. Low Level initialization
4. Start
5. Yes to the Big floppy question
6. create a new partition with 1,7gb (and forgot to put the rest in a second partition)
7. press ok

Now my medion-mp3-player with original 4gb is set to the 1,7gb and i can't find a way to get the 4gb back.

Can anyone help me.

I hope my enlish isn't to bad to understand.

regards from germany

René

Just do the process again and set the Active partition to 4,294,967,296 bytes or lower

ian

Hello Ian

THX 4 reply

I tryed out this but it don't work. I can put maximal the 1,7 gb to the partition

Don't forget to delete the active partition first then reset the player

You then have to plug it in again and repeat the procedure

I have reset some back to their hacked partition size so it should be just the same.

ian

Hello

When I start the low level initialization I always get a empty Partition Table. To save this dont changes anything on the Player. only the folders which will be createt automaticly are empty after the action.